The U.S. Navy’s Carrier Air Wing 1 engaged in the largest maritime strike in Navy aviation history in terms of bomb tonnage earlier this year, a defense official confirmed to Military Times.
On Feb. 1, the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman launched 27 F/A-18 Super Hornets as part of a coordinated airstrike against Islamic State operatives in Somalia in collaboration with the federal government of Somalia, a defense official with knowledge of the strike said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Sixteen aircraft dropped 124,000 pounds of ordnance on targets in less than two minutes.
“The joint airstrikes targeted senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a series of cave complexes approximately 50 miles southeast of Bosaso,” U.S. Africa Command said in a Feb. 11 statement. “The command’s current assessment is that approximately 14 ISIS-Somalia operatives were killed and no civilians were harmed.”
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Among those killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an ISIS recruiter and operations leader who led efforts to deploy jihadists into the U.S. and Europe, according to the statement.
Past large-scale U.S. airstrikes, like those conducted during Operation Desert Storm, involved multiple aircraft carriers and air wings, which would fly joint missions, said the defense official.
But the Feb. 1 strike was unique in that it was conducted by a single air wing.
The Truman arrived in the Red Sea on Dec. 14, 2024, to provide combat support against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who’ve conducted missile and drone strikes against shipping and military vessels in the region since November 2023.
While there, Carrier Air Wing 1, composed of eight embarked squadrons aboard the Truman, took part in operations striking over 1,100 targets, the defense official said. The strikes killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and multiple senior Houthi officials, according to the official.
Specifically, Carrier Air Wing 1 flew over 13,000 sorties and used over 770 weapons and 1.1 million pounds of ordnance.
The Truman left the Red Sea earlier this month for its homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, according to reports, several weeks after President Donald Trump called off a nearly two-month-long airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Still, the carrier was marred by several mishaps during its deployment in the Red Sea, including the loss of three F/A-18 Super Hornets, which cost at least $67.4 million each, according to Naval Air Systems Command. One jet was shot down by friendly fire from the guided missile cruiser Gettysburg in December. Two jets fell overboard, one in April while being towed in the carrier’s hangar bay and the other less than two weeks later after a failed landing.
The carrier also collided Feb. 13 with a civilian merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt. The Navy, as a result, relieved the commanding officer of his duties.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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